A Wall of Trees is Reversing Desertification and Empowering Communities in Nigeria

KRAPAVIS has restored 249 sacred groves in Rajasthan through a community-led model where villages share restoration costs and appoint local custodians. They've successfully reviving water sources, wells, and biodiversity while securing a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that protects these community-conserved ecosystems across India.

The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) has built over 204 wildlife crossings, fencing systems, and protected corridors across a 3,400-kilometer stretch of the Rocky Mountains. Since Y2Y's founding in 1997, reports of wildlife-vehicle collisions have substantially reduced, thousands of safe animal crossings have been documented, and 9.8 million hectares of connected habitat has been protected.

Women's conservation collectives in Nigerian villages surrounding Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary use community patrols, enforcement of bylaws, and collaboration with traditional leaders to reduce illegal logging, river pollution, and wildlife crimes. Their approach has reduced river poisoning in some communities, fostered the return of chimpanzee calls, and delivered forest regeneration.

Indigenous communities in Michoacán, Mexico, have implemented traditional collective land management and community-driven governance strategies to sustainably cultivate avocados, successfully protecting local forests and biodiversity, empowering local economies, and resisting cartel violence.

In 2007 a program in Meghalaya, India called The Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Project was created to bring together the community members in an agreement to protect the sacred groves there. This was part of the larger REDD project within India by the United Nations to mitigate some of the effects of deforestation and forest degradation. The longterm goal is to revive 27,000 hectares (about 66,718 acres) of forests and to serve as an example for other biodiverse areas in the country. The project has since received international funding to support other things as well, like stimulating the tourist economy.

The Corridors of Life project, led by IPÊ and driven by land reform settler families in Brazil's Pontal do Paranapanema region, has restored over 6,000 hectares of Atlantic Forest through community nurseries, rural startups, and agroforestry systems. Since 2002, they have brought back 174 bird species, 29 mammal species, and economic opportunity to hundreds of families.

The Nusantra Fund provides financial support directly to community-led projects in Indonesia. The aim is to improve the livelihoods of Indigenous and local people while tackling climate change impacts and protecting biodiversity.

Landowners, state employees, environmental groups, and local hunters are working together to protect Hawaii’s forests and drinking water by eradicating invasive plants from the state’s protected forests. By allowing native plants to flourish, these forests could help combat climate change by sequestering carbon and allowing freshwater quivers to recharge with rainfall. Since 2013, the state has built 132 miles of fence to keep grazers away from forests to prevent the spread of seeds of invasive plants. However, this method can be expensive; a 1,400-acre fence cost over a million dollars.

The Port of Skagit Commission invested $7.5 million in a public-private partnership to build grain infrastructure (including a $1.2 million mill, granary, and research center) that enabled local farmers to shift from unprofitable commodity wheat to specialty grains.

El proyecto Almanegra de la Fundación Proaves capacita a mujeres rurales para reproducir magnolias en peligro de extinción mediante viveros especializados en 13 reservas naturales. Han logrado germinar aproximadamente el 27% de las semillas recolectadas y trasplantar plántulas a bosques y predios privados.